• Any person/group of individuals, internal or external, that has an interest in, or impact on the

business or corporate strategy of the organization.

• They have the power to influence the strategy or performance of that organization.

 It suggests identifying which stakeholders are incredibly important.

 Metrics to define the importance being High Power and High Interest which management would need to
manage closely, while investing a lot of time and resources.
Keep Satisfied Stakeholders
High Power, Less Interested People.
Ex: Banks, government, customers,
etc.
Key Players Stakeholders
High Power, High Interested People.

Ex: Shareholders, CEO, BOD, etc.

Low Priority Stakeholders

Low Power, Less Interested People.
Ex: Business magazines, media etc.

Keep Informed Stakeholders

Low Power, High Interested People.
Ex: Employees, vendors, suppliers,
legal experts, etc.

Simplified Coverage Pg. No.: 120-121 Mentor Coverage Question No.: 35.

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 • Factors and their performances which differentiate the organization from its competitors and provide
competitive advantages.
• It can be internal or external.- Industry and markets, customers, products/services & channels.

Industry and Markets Customers – Products & Services

Strategic Groups Channels
The companies pose competition to each other on Channels are the distribution system by which an
many variables like: organization distributes its product or provides its
 Price/Quality Range service.
 Product Line Breadth
 Services Offered Types of Channel
 Technological Usage Sales channel
 Distribution Channel The key question is: Who needs
 Geographical Coverage to sell to whom for your product to
 Vertical Integration be sold to your end user?
There can be many strategic groups in the industry.
Product channel
Strategic Group Mapping Series of intermediaries who
One technique, which can be used to analyze the physically handle the product on
its path from its producer to the
competition position of rivals is- “Strategic Group
end user.
Mapping”
Steps in Strategic Group Mapping Process: Services channel
1. Identify the different variables Entities that provide necessary
2. Plot the firm on multivariable map services to support the product,
3. Assign the firm fall in same strategy space as it moves through the sales
4. Draw circle around each strategic group channel and after purchase by the
end user.

SWOT Analysis
SWOT Importance

 Provides a Logical
Framework

 Presents a Comparative
Analysis

 Guides strategist in
Strategy Identification

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  Marketing is an organizational process
or a societal process.
 A set of processes for creating,
communicating, and delivering value
to customers for managing customer
relationships in ways that benefit the
organization and its stakeholders.

 Marketing strategy refers to  Customers  Product

actions for developing, pricing,  Distribution network  Price
distributing, and promoting  Warranty  Place
products that meet the needs of  Remuneration/incentives
 Promotion
specific customer groups.  Advertising
 Pricing  Personal Selling
 It analyses and selects target  Advertising
market, and develops suitable  Publicity
marketing mix.
 Sales Promotion

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 Strategic Marketing Techniques
Social Marketing Augmented Marketing Direct Marketing
Design, implementation, and Additional customer services and Marketing through various
control of programs seeking to benefits that a product can offer advertising media that interact
increase the acceptability of a besides the core and actual directly with consumers.
social ideas, cause, or practice product that is being offered. Examples: catalogue selling, e-mail,
among a target group to bring in a Examples: Movies on demand, telecomputing, electronic
social change. online computer repair services, marketing, shopping, etc.
secretarial services, etc.

Relationship Marketing Services Marketing Demarketing

The process of creating, The concepts, tools, and Marketing strategies to reduce
maintaining, and enhancing strong, techniques, of marketing to demand temporarily or
value-laden relationships with services. permanently. The aim is not to
customers and other stakeholders Examples: Telecommunications destroy demand, but only to reduce
through CRM. services, financial services, or shift it.
hospitality, tourism, etc.

Differential Marketing Synchro-marketing Concentrated Marketing

Market-coverage strategy in which Used to find ways to alter the Market-coverage strategy in which
a firm decides to target several pattern of demand through flexible a firm goes after a large share of
market segments and designs pricing, promotion, and other one or few sub-markets.
separate offer for each. incentives.
Examples: Maha Bachat Sales

Place Marketing Person Marketing Organization Marketing

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 Competitive Advantage
• It allows a firm to gain an edge over rivals when competing.
• The set of unique features of a company and its products that are perceived by the target market
as significant and superior to the competition.

Value Creation
Providing products and services
to the customers with more
worth (Value).
Value means the integration of
the following in products:

 Future
 Quality
 Durability
 Technology
 Availability
 Services
 After-sale Services
 Marketing
 Adv. & Branding

Role of Resources, Capabilities in Achieving Competitive Advantages

Tangible Resources
 Assets that can be seen and quantified.

Intangible Resources
 Assets that typically are rooted deeply in
the firm’s history and have accumulated
over time.
Capabilities
 Capabilities exist when resources have
been purposely integrated to achieve a
specific task or set of tasks.

Characteristics of Resources that Provide Sustainable Competitive Advantages

Imitability Durability Transferability Appropriability

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  Core Competencies are created by superior integration of
technological, physical and human resources.
 They represent distinctive skills as well as intangible,
invisible, intellectual assets and cultural capabilities.
 It also refers to the strengths of an organization that
provide competitive advantage and value to it.

 It allows the company to provide better products or services to market without the fear that
competitors can copy it.
 The company has to keep on improving these skills in order to sustain its competitive
position.

 The service or the product has to have real impact on the customer as the reason to
choose to purchase them.
 If customer has chosen the company without this impact, then competence is not a core
competence and it will not affect the company’s market position.

 Core competence must be applicable to the whole organization; it cannot be only one
particular skill or specified area of expertise.
 It is a unique set of skills and expertise, which will be used throughout the organisation to
open up potential markets to be exploited.

 Valuable

 Non-substitutable

 Costly to Imitate

 Rare

Simplified Coverage Pg. No.: 120-121 Mentor Coverage Question

Question No.:
No.: 35.
35.

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 This generic strategy calls for being the low cost  Development of a product or service that offers
producer in an industry for a given level of unique attributes that are valued by customers to
quality. be better than or different from the products of the
 The firm sells its products either at average competition.
industry prices to earn a profit higher than that of  The value added by the uniqueness of the product
rivals, or below the average industry prices to may allow the firm to charge a premium price for
gain market share. it.

 Access to the capital required.  Leading scientific research or R & D.

 Skill in designing products.  Creative product development team.
 High level of expertise in manufacturing and  Strong sales team
process engineering.  Reputation for quality and innovation.
 Efficient distribution channels.

Simplified Coverage Pg. No.: 120-121 Mentor Coverage Question No.: 35.

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  The focus strategy concentrates on a particular group of customers or a particular product-line segment
and within that segment attempts to achieve either a cost advantage or differentiation.
 The whole idea is that the needs of the group can be better serviced by focusing entirely on it.

 Other firms may lower their  Imitation by competitors.  Imitation by competitors.

costs as well.
 Changes in customer tastes.  Changes in target segment or
 As technology improves, the customer tastes.
competitors may eliminate the  Various firms pursuing focus
competitive advantage by strategies may be able to  Other focusers may be able to
increasing their production achieve even greater carve out sub-segments that
capabilities. differentiation in their market they can serve even better.
segments.
 Buyer interest may swing to
differentiating Products.

 Prompt forecasting of demand  Improve product performance.  Selecting specific niches

of a product or service. which are not covered by cost
 Fixing optimum product prices leaders and differentiators.
 Optimum utilization of the based on Uniqueness.
resources.  Creating superior skills for
 Offer utility to the customers catering such niche markets.
 Achieving economies of scale and match products with their
tastes and preferences.  Generating high efficiencies
 Standardization of products for for serving such niche
mass production.  Offer the high-quality markets.
product/service for buyer
 Invest in cost saving satisfaction.  Developing innovative ways in
technologies. managing the value chain.
 Rapid product innovation.
 Resistance to differentiation
till it becomes essential.  Enhancing brand image.

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 Rivalry: Competitors are  Rivalry: Brand loyalty acts  Premium prices can be
likely to avoid a price war. as safeguard against charged by the
competitors. organisations for their
 Buyers: Powerful focused product/ services.
buyers/customers would not  Buyers: They do not
be able to exploit the cost negotiate for price.  Entry Barrier: Due to the
leader firm. tremendous expertise in the
 Suppliers: Because goods and services that the
 Suppliers: Cost leaders are differentiators charge a organisations following
able to absorb greater price premium price, they can focus strategy offer, rivals
increases from suppliers. afford to absorb higher and new entrants may find it
costs of supplies. difficult to compete.
 Entrants: Low-cost leaders
create barriers to market.  Entrants: Innovative
features create barriers to
 Substitutes: Low-cost market.
leaders are more likely to
lower the costs to induce  Substitutes: Substitutes
existing customers. can’t replace differentiated
products.

 Sustainability: Cost advantage  Sustainability: In the long  Competencies: The firms

may not last long as term, uniqueness is difficult to lacking in distinctive
competitors may imitate cost sustain. competencies may not be able
reduction techniques. to pursue focus strategy.
 Switching: Charging too high a
 Sales Volume: Cost leadership price for differentiated  Cost: Due to the limited
can succeed only if the firm can features may cause the demand of product/services,
achieve higher sales volume. customer to switch-off to costs are high, which can
another alternative. cause problems.
 Short-term Advantage: Cost
leaders tend to keep their costs  Substandard: Differentiation  Competition: In the long run,
low by minimizing cost of fails to work if its basis is the niche could disappear or
advertising, market research, something that is not valued be taken over by larger
and research and development, by the customers. competitors by acquiring the
but this approach can prove to same distinctive
be expensive in the long run. Ex: Home delivery of packed snacks competencies.
in 30 minutes would not even be a
 Superior Technology: differentiator as the consumer
Technological advancement wouldn’t value such an offer.
areas a great threat to cost
leaders.

Simplified Coverage Pg. No.: 120-121 Mentor Coverage Question No.: 35.

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

Simplified Coverage Pg. No.: 120-121 Mentor Coverage Question No.: 35.

SBQ 1: ABC Ltd. is a beverage manufacturing company. It chiefly manufactures soft drinks. The products
are priced on the lower side which has made the company a leader in the business. Currently it is
holding 35 percent market share. The R & D of company developed a formula for manufacturing sugar
free beverages. On successful trial and approval by the competent authorities, company was granted to
manufacture sugar
free beverages. This company is the pioneer to launch sugar free beverages which are sold at a
relatively higher price. This new product has been accepted widely by a class of customers. These
products have proved profitable for the company.
Identify the strategy employed by the company ABC Ltd. and mention what measures could be adopted
by the company to achieve the employed strategy.
SBQ 2: Spacetek Pvt. Ltd. is an IT company. Although there is cutthroat competition in the IT sector,
Spacetek deals with distinctive niche clients and is generating high efficiencies for serving such niche
market. Other rival firms are not attempting to specialize in the same target market.
Identify the strategy adopted by Spacetek Pvt. Ltd. and also explain the advantages and disadvantages
of that strategy.
SBQ 3: Rohit Sodhi runs a charitable organization for the promotion of sports in the country. His
organization conducts regular free training camps for youths interested in playing cricket, football,
hockey, badminton and so on. Many of his trainees have reached national level contests. Rohit noticed
that with the success of IPL (Cricket) tournament there is an increasing trend to extend similar format in
other sports as well.
He wishes to know how the development is going to help sports and to which industries it will offer
opportunities and threats.

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